The mountain above is Denali – you made it to the peak! Congratulations! I hope you have enjoyed the course and are saddened to see it end. What concepts or theories did you find most interesting and/or useful? Is there an area where you changed your thinking?
Re this chapter: Which debate do you consider most important and interesting? Which side do you agree with? Why?
I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course. I was really disappointed to learn that econ 202 was full for next Spring. So I’ll take a business course instead and hope to be back in your class again Fall 2021. I really love economics and might want to switch my major from business to economics. I think the book was excellent and you did a great job keeping me engaged and interested. I really want to save all of your links you posted and get a chance to catch up reading all of them. I love learning how the economy ticks. I used to play Sim City games and tweak the budgets and incentives to try and make my cities grow and thrive. To understand the relationships between certain variables to a point that you can almost predict the future, is very powerful. Between macro and micro economics I feel like most in our society do NOT understand what makes the world, and the USA, go. I believe that by learning economics deeper I have an advantage in the marketplace vs. the average person. We should almost make econ 101 a required course in order to vote in this country! Too many of our fellow Americans are pulled in various voting directions because of something they hear or some heart string was tugged in a direction. If they only understood how these decisions affect the economy, and our neighbors. I loved learning about taxes, universal basic income, and unemployment insurance. I loved learning about he stock market, demand and supply curve shifts, our inflation policy, what the fed does for us. I loved learning about exports and net capital outflow, exchange rates, and output. I loved learning about GDP, what it means, how it’s calculated, and what to expect. I really did love it all.
In Chapter 18 I like the debate regarding how governments should fight recessions. I think this is very relevant in my life being 30 now and seeing the 2000, 2008, and 2020 recessions occur during my working years. I agree with the Maynard Keynes side of spending hikes to help reduce and fight the recessions. I do think long term this creates some problems with our national debt. Short term it’s perfectly fine. During a recession while unemployment is rising and the economy is uncertain, people don’t want to spend money they want to horde it. They are scared and the future is unclear. Their job situation is unclear and the future could mean more layoffs. When you see the company you love letting people go all around you, stock piling cash is your best friend. Having personal low debt and a pile of cash gives you freedom to weather those retracting economies. You feel more confident losing your job with those reserves there to help you through a tough time. So cutting taxes won’t increase spending, it will only increase savings. The government needs to step in and help the economy get back on track during a recession, and I believe that includes spending some printed money.
Thanks again for everything!
Ryan
Dude.World 